Clark v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “sufficient corroborating evidence may be circumstantial, it may be slight, and it need not of itself be sufficient to warrant a conviction of the crime charged. It must, however, be independent of the accomplice testimony and must directly connect the defendant with the crime, or lead to the inference that he is guilty. Slight evidence from an extraneous source identifying the accused as a. participant in the criminal act is sufficient corroboration of the accomplice to support a verdict.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Veal v. State

2. “The testimony of a single witness is generally sufficient to establish a fact. However, in certain cases, including . . . felony cases where the only witness is an accomplice, the testimony of a single witness is not sufficient. Nevertheless, corroborating circumstances may dispense with the necessity for the testimony of a second witness, except in prosecutions for treason. 2”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Veal v. State

3. “[T]he continuing witness rule does not apply where ... the videotape was replayed to the jury a single time 'in a controlled environment, the courtroom, with all parties and the trial judge present.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ross v. State